ST. LOUIS — A man who pulled a 14-year-old boy off his bicycle and shot him in the head was sentenced Friday to 21 years in prison.

James Blake, 24, was convicted in June of second-degree murder, second-degree robbery and two counts of armed criminal action in the March 2021 killing of Kathon Moore.

The boy had been riding his bike with a friend when they saw Blake with another man, Omarion Mays, outside an apartment complex near Hodiamont and Etzel avenues in the West End neighborhood of north St. Louis.

Kathon offered to sell the men marijuana. Blake and Mays pulled Kathon from his bike, and Blake shot the boy dead. Then the men then took the marijuana and fled.

Mays' case is pending.

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